Hercules Foljambe – Elizabethan Privateer
Who was the Elizabethan privateer, Hercules Foljambe, that somewhat mysterious purported
ancestor of the Fulgham/Fulghum family in North America? Is it plausible that he was our ancestor? All
of the “official” Foljambe pedigrees that include Hercules show him to have died without issue. Yet the
Bishop’s transcripts of Saint James Church in Clerkenwell, London, show him to have christened a
daughter, Odelia, on February 18, 1597 (IGI). He was married four times but none of the pedigrees
document all of his marriages. He certainly died in straitened financial circumstances and no evidence of a
will has been found in the published sources. He lived to a grand old age for the seventeenth century, 82
years, and his claim to fame was that of a gambler, a risk taker, and a warrior with a hot temper. He
wagered his entire estate, his birthright, on a single privateering venture with George Clifford, the Earl of
Cumberland … and lost it all. Gentry family histories tend to be unkind to family members who lost their
estates, for it was their fundamental responsibility to preserve the family estates at all costs. So we are
faced with an ambiguous and sparse record of Hercules. There are several theories concerning our English
origins, e.g., the Lincolnshire origin, London origin, Somerset origin, and more. The Hercules Foljambe
theory is only one promising origin theory. The purpose of this article is to provide insight into Hercules’
life and potentially spark some interest in our readers to pursue further study of Hercules and uncover new
information.
Hercules Foljambe was born circa 1550 the son of Godfrey of Plumley and Elizabeth Draycott
Foljambe, daughter of Philip Draycott (D). Hercules grew up at Plumley and not Moor Hall … the family
did not acquire Moor Hall until 1573. Since Hercules was a younger son, having an older brother Godfrey,
who would be the family heir, he followed the custom of the time and dedicated himself to soldiering. In a
letter to King James ca. 1608, Hercules stated that “… for 40 years he had been employed in the
Netherlands, in the field and at sea …”(C). This would place him in the military in 1568 at age 18.
Hercules would have deployed many times to the “Low Countries” (Netherlands) over the succeeding
decades with the Derbyshire trained bands when their arms were needed in the war with the French and
Spaniards. In 1586, the Earl of Shrewsbury corresponded with John Manners, Deputy Lieutenant of
Derbyshire, for the appointment of Hercules Foljambe as Captain of the trained band (R). On Tuesday
night November 15, 1591 a messenger named Leonard Frost summoned Hercules from Fairburn in the
parish of Ledsham West Yorkshire, 2-1/4 miles from Ferrybridge, to Moor hall in Derbyshire (G). His
elder brother, Godfrey, had died and Hercules was his heir. Finally, at age 41 Hercules had an estate.
Within the next few months exciting news of the Earl of Cumberland’s capture of the Spanish treasure ship,
the Madre de Dios, riveted England. Vast riches, said to exceed 500,000 pounds in value, flooded the
country’s markets from the ship’s cargo. Hercules observed this windfall with an adventurer’s interest.
The outline of a future plan began to form in his mind.
In 1593, Hercules leased Moor Hall to Richard Grynne for 50Lbs/Yr and moved to London (G).
Although he appears previously to have married Sarah, daughter of John Hardwick of Hardwick (Colin
Foljambe wrote the author that Hercules divorced her for adultery) and Anne (last name not known) (D),
the Bishops Transcripts for St. Bride’s Church Fleet Street, London tell us that he married Elizabeth Barker
on February 25, 1595. (IGI) Also in 1595, Hercules’ distant cousin and the head of the senior branch of the
Foljambe family, Sir Godfrey of Walton, died naming Hercules as one of his heirs (See Family Facts No.
30, August, 1999 for details). The London of 1595 was teeming with merchant adventurers and would-be
privateers … Elizabeth I had opened the door to legalized privateering in her undeclared war with Spain by
issuing “Letters of Marque” to vessel captains which protected them from being charged with piracy.
English gentry were encouraged to take part in privateering expeditions for Queen and country. Many of
these expeditions were joint stock ventures where those investing their resources shared in any “plunder”
taken during the voyage. Given this as background, we can see that London gentlemen of the time, those
who had ready resources for investment, and especially those with a military and seafaring background,
were barraged with proposals to invest purse and person in privateering ventures. This was the London of
1597 when George Clifford, Earl of Cumberland, approached Hercules Foljambe with just such a proposal.
In July 1597, Earl George obtained verbal approval from the Queen for a mysterious expedition
against the Spanish. As this expedition would unfold, it would prove to be one of the most strategic and
intriguing efforts of the Elizabethan period. Most privateering ventures of the period had little planning
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and were hit-or-miss. Earl George’s 1598 expedition was to have layers of planning, sophisticated
disinformation releases, a sophisticated intelligence organization and spy network, a large amphibious task
force of naval and land elements, and, most importantly, a strategic plan that transcended plunder and
struck at the heart of the Spanish war machine.
On 7 October 1597 Earl George received his
official Commission from the Queen to appoint Captains
and Officers and fit out his fleet for the mysterious
expedition. (E) The disinformation cover story was that
the expedition’s target was Pernambuco with its port town
of Racife in Brazil. Because of his strong reputation and
long string of privateering successes, Earl George had no
problem recruiting fellow investors, captains, officers and
men for the expedition. Hercules Foljambe wagered his
entire estate on the expedition, selling or encumbering all
of his property to Bess of Hardwick and Godfrey Platts
for 1000 pounds. (E) He leased his ship, Galleon
Constance (350 tons) from the London merchant John
Watts for about 300 Lbs/Mo and recruited his crew. (E)
All told, his burden for ship and crew, including leases,
wages, victualling and ordinance was about 600 Lbs/Mo.
During the winter of 1597 Philip II sent
reinforcements to Pernambuco, having been tricked by
Cumberland’s disinformation. On March 8, 1598 Earl
George’s expedition set sail from Portsmouth to a West
Indies destination known only to him. The senior
Officers of the expedition were Earl George, Admiral; Sir
John Berkeley, Colonel General; Captain William
Meysey, Lt. Colonel and Marshall; Captain Hercules
Foljambe (Fulgeam), Sergeant Major General; Captain Arthur Powell, Lt. Colonel of the Earl’s Regiment;
and Captain Arthur Milles, Master of Artillery (P). The task force consisted of 20 ships and 1790 men.
Earl George was known to be a courageous and resourceful commander. His officers were experienced in
the field and at sea and his sailors and soldiers were the best available. As the expedition proceeded, it
moved through five phases of action: Lisbon, Portugal; Lanzarote; Virgin Islands; San Juan, Puerto Rico;
and the return. When the Task Force left Portsmouth all of the Officers and men had good reason to
believe in the complete success of the expedition and that they all would soon return from Brazil (for Brazil
was believed to be their destination) rich with plunder.
The Earl’s first phase of action was to enter the Bay of Lisbon, Portugal to trap and board four
carracks and a Molucca Galleon laden with silver, about which he had learned through his intelligence
sources. The intelligence ran both ways, however, and the Portuguese had been warned of the Earl’s
approach (E). Think of the audacity of these privateers as they sailed into Lisbon Bay under the 100 guns
of Castle St. Julian and against the warships of the treasure fleet. After sizing up the alerted defense facing
him, Earl George wisely ordered his Task Force out of Lisbon Bay and on to the second phase of the
strategy.
By April 13, 1598 the Task Force was in position at Lanzarote, Canary Islands, to send in a
landing party to capture the governor, Marquis Augustin de Herrera. This phase of the Earl’s strategy was
to capture and hold for ransom the extremely wealthy Marquis. Unfortunately, the slippery Marquis was
not to be found and so, instead, the Earl took the opportunity of the stopover to land all of his troops and
have them train and drill for the ensuing phases. During this phase of action, when the Earl was confident
that there would be no leaking of information on the grand objective of the expedition, he called all of his
Commanders together and briefed them on the overall strategy and intermediate objectives of the
Expeditionary Task Force. Always a persuasive speaker, the Earl soon had any of the Commanders who
were disappointed not to be going to Brazil turned around and supporting the Puerto Rico objective. By the
time he was through, they all were agreeing enthusiastically and were soon off to their next rendezvous in
the Virgin Islands.
The Virgin Islands landing was the staging area for the expedition and here all of the men were
mustered and organized into twelve Companies of eighty men each. After another regimen of drilling and
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training, on May 29, 1598 the Earl signaled the entire force to gather and he delivered a stern warning on
discipline. He said that he knew that every man’s hope was that the journey would be short and would end
in the capture of rich carracks. Now, however, they were on a different course that might not be rich in
plunder that would extend their expedition, but would bring them honor. He was to lead, and they were to
obey. He would not overlook any breach of discipline nor would he let it go unpunished. The Earl was
now grim and brooked no opposition. They sailed for San Juan the first week of June 1598.
The fleet skirted to the north and west of the Virgin Islands and then tacked south to come directly
at San Juan, arriving off the coast at dawn on June 6, 1598. The accompanying map is from Cumberland’s
subsequent account of the expedition addressed to his sister-in-law, Anne, Countess of Warwick (E). This
somewhat confusing graphic is the only known surviving pictorial depiction of the actions that were to
follow. The map is confusing because it is oriented with north pointing down and south pointing up. If the
reader will adjust for this reversed orientation, the map can serve as a valuable reference. Referring to the
map, we note that San Juan Island is about 3 miles long and ½ mile wide running east-west. At the eastern
end of the island are two narrow peninsulas jutting toward the mainland with the most southerly one
connected to the mainland by a barricaded causeway and drawbridge. The southerly peninsula was named
El Puente and the northerly one was El Boqueron. Each peninsula was well fortified. In the center of the
island we note the city of San Juan protected only by light walls. At the westerly end of the island was the
most formidable fortress in the Caribbean, El Morro, sited specifically to protect the entrance to the
deepwater harbor, El Tejar. The northern exposed border of San Juan was not approachable from the sea
since it was protected by shallows and rocky shoals. Cumberland knew that he had to neutralize El Morro,
either by running past its guns into El Tejar from the west or by a landward attack from the east. On the
morning of June 6, 1598, Cumberland landed 1,000 soldiers on a sandy beach east of El Boqueron,
virtually unopposed. The Task Force is shown in the lower left corner of the map in the darkened area.
The ship shown to the south of El Puente is Spanish, providing naval gunnery support for their defense of
the Causeway. The ship shown north of El Boqueron is English, providing naval gunnery support for the
English landing on El Boqueron and will be discussed more later.
The San Juan action was planned to move forward in three expected battles: the capture of the El
Puente Causeway; the investment and capture of San Juan City; and the siege and capture of El Morro.
The hardest fought and most difficult battle was that of the El Puente Causeway.
Stepping off about midday from his beachhead at Congrejos Beach following a quick
reconnaissance to El Boqueron, Cumberland directed his forces to the El Puente Causeway. The mainland
end of the causeway was very narrow, no wider than three men walking abreast, and impassable on either
side due to deep water. Cumberland reached the causeway at sunset and found the drawbridge up and the
barricade shut. They learned from a prisoner that the seaward side of the causeway could be waded at low
tide, the next tide being at 2 AM. Before dawn on June 7, 1598 they began to attack the gate, wading
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through the water in attempted flanking movements. The Spaniards had a particularly nasty weapon named
by the English the “Murtherer” (see the accompanying photograph) covering the causeway through a port
in the barricade and it caused a large number of English casualties. While wading toward the gate,
Cumberland was struck by a musket ball, lost his balance, and was pulled underwater by his heavy armor.
He would have drowned in the darkness and murky water were it not for the quick thinking and action of
Hercules Foljambe who grappled underwater for the Earl and pulled him up so that his head was above
water and then dragged him through a hailstorm of musket fire to the causeway. After several hours of
hard fighting, the English were still unable to breach or flank the gate and the rising tide drove them back to
the mainland.
At this point, the Earl changed tactics. He needed to secure the causeway but he was now
convinced that he could not take it with a frontal assault. He decided to run a warship into the shallows off
El Boqueron and, while cannonading the El Boqueron fortifications from the grounded ship with naval
gunnery, land a force of 200 infantry, take El Boqueron and then land reinforcements to flank the El Puente
fortifications and take the causeway from the rear. Once the ship the English called “the Fleming” was in
place and bombarding El Boqueron the Spaniards could not hold out for long. By 5 O’clock PM, the Earl’s
orders had been executed and El Boqueron was in English hands. Later that night , the English
reconnaissance found that the fortifications protecting the Causeway had been abandoned. The Spanish
defenders of the Causeway had retreated to their warship south of El Puente when they saw El Boqueron
fall. The Causeway and bridge was in English hands by early morning June 8, 1598.
Pressing to maintain English momentum, Cumberland ordered his Commanders to rapidly march
to San Juan City, moving initially in two columns, one from El Boqueron and the other across the
causeway, merging about half way to San Juan. The representation of the two columns is seen in
Cumberland’s map. Ironically, the Spaniards, upon abandoning the El Puente battlefield, did not stop to
defend San Juan City but retreated immediately to El Morro or to warships anchored in the bay. The
English marched into San Juan unopposed. Cumberland quartered his forces in the principal homes in San
Juan, barricaded all approaches to the city, and began the necessary action to lay siege to Fort El Morro.
By June 17, 1598 Cumberland’s forces had sufficiently constructed forward gun emplacements and
trenching to begin bombardment. Unfortunately for the Spaniards, El Morro was logistically ill prepared
for a siege. The fortress had a defective cistern and the crowding into the fortress of panicked citizenry as
well as the retreating soldiers gave them no more than five days of water. By the time bombardment began,
the Spaniards were already in extremis. Shortly, the Spanish leaders requested negotiations. By June 21,
1598 the Spaniards had capitulated and the English held San Juan and Puerto Rico, the bastion of the West
Indies. The taking of El Morro had cost only two English killed. At this point, all of Cumberland’s
officers and men were in agreement to garrison San Juan until the Queen’s pleasure be known. This, of
course, included Sergeant Major General Hercules Foljambe, a key leader in the successful expedition, who
was accumulating 600 pounds per month obligations to his creditors.
The task force immediately plundered everything of value in the San Juan vicinity which was,
unfortunately, not much, and established their garrison. The cruel hand of fate quickly descended upon the
garrison in the form of an epidemic of dysentery. By early July, 200 were dead and another 400 were near
death … by late July 400 were dead. With no relief in sight for the epidemic, Cumberland left San Juan in
haste on August 12, 1598 having left instructions with Sir John Berkeley to erase El Morro’s landward side
before the remainder departed. Cumberland’s intent was to obtain the Queen’s support for a renewal of the
occupation and he did not want the fortress El Morro in his way. The entire task force reached Portsmouth
on September 23 and then London on October 1, 1598. It was later determined that the plunder taken
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during the expedition was worth only 16,000 pounds, less than half the cost of mounting it. Hercules
Foljambe ran up at least 4,200 pounds in commitments during the seven-month cruise. If he was able to
claim his fraction of the plunder, which is doubtful, he would have reduced his debt to 2,100 pounds and
with the original 1,000 pounds from selling his estates, he was still short 1,100 pounds, roughly one million
dollars in today’s U.S. money. There descended upon the privateers, perhaps understandably, a pall of
deep resentment at being abandoned by their Queen to fend for themselves in handling these debts.
Tempers were short. The following curious entry is found in the Chesterfield Parish Register for December
15, 1598: “Sepultus Robertus Eyre generosus, per violentum Herculis Foljambe.” The suggestion in this
entry appears to be that Hercules killed Robert Eyre in an act of violence, but we do not have the details.
The Earl of Cumberland’s estates were also not immune from the debt burden. In a twist of irony, the
former Foljambe estates of Wormhill and Hassop were in Clifford family hands at the time of the
expedition and had to be sold to help defray part of Earl George’s debts. (E)
By January 18, 1600 Hercules had delivered all of his property to the possession of Bess of
Hardwick, the old Countess of Shrewsbury. Now in his 50’s, his days with the Derbyshire Trained Bands
were over. We can get a glimpse of his personality from his 1602 letter to “Mr. Rye” copied in Dr. Jim
Fulghum’s book; The Fulghum and Kindred Families; 1978:
“Mr. Rye, yt pleased my Ld. Keeper, that honorable and noted justiciar, to send your sonne
Phillippee with his messenger to me to offer me that matters in controversy betwixt you and me
might be arbitrated by friends in the country, to which, from the beginning of questions betwixt us, I
was ever willinge & now remaining from my honourable Lord his motion I am right willinge to
ende all matters with you by arbitration of friends, if it can be. If not, lett come you forward in
God’s name. At my removing from London I did wayte on my Ld. Keeper, both to give him thankes
for his honorable favor towards me, and also to have him understand how willinge I was to obey
his Lord’s motion of arbitraiment, whereuppon it pleased his Ld. To wryte his letters to you to
suche a purpose w’ch I have sente by this messenger my purpose and desier to know your mind
herein, and so I end my portion. //S// Hercules Foliambe”
The Lord Keeper in 1602 was Sir Thomas Egerton and “Mr. Rye” appears to have been Mr. Edward Rye of
Aston whose daughter, Sarah, was married to George Poge of Misterton, Notts. Regardless of his advanced
age and straitened financial circumstances, Hercules must have had a charming personality for we find that
he later married the widow Sarah (Rye) Poge and moved in with her into the Rectory at Misterton,
apparently owned by Edward Rye. Even then, still smothered under a mountain of debt and no prospects
for relief, unable to pay his rent, in 1613 Hercules had to bear the embarrassment of being dispossessed of
Misterton by his father-in-law, Edward Rye. As time passed, lawsuits became a way of life for Hercules.
In 1619 he was in the Star Chamber as the plaintiff against Platts and Bretland regarding property
encumbered for his 1598 voyage. As it happened, the 1598 expedition was the summit of Hercules’ life.
He was never to recover financially from the devastating burden of what was almost totally a military
action for Queen and country. Elizabeth never acknowledged it. The final record of him is his burial at
Rotherham, West Yorkshire on November 27, 1632.
Now to the central question … might he have been our ancestor? The author believes that Captain
Anthony Fulliamb was born between 1610-20. Hercules would have been 60 to 70 years old at his birth
and his mother would necessarily have been Sarah Rye Poge Foljambe. The Foljambe pedigrees mention
widow Sarah Poge, a son Darcy and four unnamed siblings. First generation Virginia-Fulgham wills
mention no relatives or property in England. Nevertheless, it is possible, although doubtful, that Anthony
Fulgham was from the union of Hercules and Sarah Poge, either naturally or by adoption. It is hoped that
this article appeals to the reader’s curiosity and will encourage further research into the Hercules Foljambe
theory.
CITATIONS
C = Nichols, John Bower; Collectenea Topographica et Genealogica, Vol I and II; London; 1834
D = Dugdale; Visitations of Yorkshire; 1665
E = Spence, Richard T.; The Privateering Earl; Alan Sutton Publishing Ltd; Gloucestershire, England; 1995
G = Mower, Arthur; Glimpses of Medieval Life (Memorandum Book of Arthur Mower), The Reliquary,
Vol. 21; England; 1880
P = Purchas, Samuel; Purchas His Pilgrimes Vol XVI; James MacLehose and Sons; Glasgow; 1906
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R = Historical Manuscripts Commission; The Manuscripts of his Grace The Duke of Rutland; Eyre and
Spottiswoode; London; 1888
IGI = International Genealogical Index; LDS; Salt Lake City
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